1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data network processing and, more particularly, to maintaining a AAA common session id for a call over a data network that involves multiple networking devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) is a general term used for the operation and management of authentication and billing systems used in data networking devices. Standard bodies such as the IETF (The Internet Engineering Task Force) have developed protocols such as Radius, to serve as open AAA client/server models. Other companies, such as Cisco Systems, Inc., have also developed proprietary AAA protocols such as TACACS+ to address their own niche requirements. One common aspect of all AAA protocols is that each must provide a means to identify a given session with a unique identifier. However, current implementations limit this identifier to a single data networking device. The Radius protocol supports this identifier via attribute 44, the Accounting-Session-Id. The TACACS+ protocol supports this identifier via the task_id attribute. The identifier will be referred to generically herein as the “session identifier” or “session id.”